Exposure Therapy
by 9noiroux6
Summary: Shadow finds Sonic's fear of water rather entertaining. Sonadow, fluff. Short & sweet :)


**This is an extremely short story I found from a while ago. Shadow's method of teaching Sonic not to fear water aren't exactly the kindest.**

* * *

The closest body of water to the house, to Sonic's despair, also happens to have a thirty-foot cliff that Shadow is forcing him to walk up.

Literally forcing.

"_Sonic_! Be serious for a second. This will _not_ kill you," Shadow insists, gripping Sonic's hand as he drags the blue hedgehog to make him ascend the slope.

Sonic uses gravity to his advantage and does nothing to support his own weight. He looks at the bottom of the slope, down at sweet, secure ground. He pulls as hard as he can against Shadow, ignoring the slight pain in his wrist.

"Honestly, you're ridiculous." Shadow mutters. He continues to pull his terrorized friend. "You need to get over this fear."

"What are you gonna do? Convert me to a beach-goer?" Sonic asks, looking up at Shadow with his emerald eyes full of fear.

The black hedgehog stands a little straighter, gradually decreasing his hold on Sonic's wrist. Sonic feels the lack of support and stands up by himself. Shadow lets him go and says, "that's not my plan."

Shadow turns away from Sonic and walks the next fifteen or so feet to the top of the cliff. He stands at the very edge and stares down at the waves crashing against the rocks. As he expected, Sonic eventually appears at his side. Well, a foot or two back. Shadow turns and looks at Sonic.

"Why in the world are we here?!" Sonic asks, glancing nervously at the edge. "If we slip, we're going to die."

"We won't die." Shadow has no room to take another step towards the edge, but he leans forward slightly and stares down, judging the position of the rocks.

"Shadow, get back!" Sonic would've reached out for him, but he felt too close to the edge as it is. "You're crazy. You really are."

Shadow turns his back on the water and looks at Sonic. "If I fell, what would you do?"

"I'd probably go into hysterics. Why?" Sonic looks at Shadow's smile and notices Shadow slowly begin to take another step back... "Shadow, stop!" Sonic half-lunges to save the black hedgehog, but he stops and Sonic just looks stupid. Shadow just laughs, giving Sonic all sorts of conflicting emotions.

Anger, for one. "I swear, Shadow! If you slip, I'm gonna let you drop. You deserve it." Sonic takes a step back and crosses his arms, still unable to hide the fear that's clear in his expression.

"Would you?" Shadow asks, smiling. He clearly doesn't believe Sonic. The two hedgehogs maintain eye contact for a brief moment, one half daring and the other half nervous. "Let's test that."

"You're seri- Shadow!" Sonic's eyes widen as he watches the suicidal black hedgehog carelessly trust-fall over the edge. Sonic instinctively rushes forward and comes to a terrifyingly close halt when he sees Shadow is nowhere in sight. Sonic had fallen onto his hands and knees and his fingers are on the edge. The water has no ripples, nothing seemed unnatural. Then Sonic senses Shadow behind him. The blue hedgehog fills with fury and gets up, whipping around to face Shadow.

The smirk on his face was enough to make Sonic want to kill. "Do you have _any idea _how stupid you are?!" Sonic yells.

"Well, my plan worked, so.. Not too stupid," Shadow answers. Before Sonic can question it, Shadow shoves Sonic's chest and sends the blue hedgehog over the edge. Shadow watches Sonic disappear underwater and uses chaos control to join his poor friend.

Sonic, in a haze of terror, anger, and confusion sees nothing but darkness... Until Shadow's familiar chaos control lights up the water beside him. At this point, they nearly stopped descending and are rather stationary. Sonic would scream if it wouldn't be pointless or waste oxygen. He grabs Shadow's wrist and they chaos control again.

Shadow brings them back to the shore, on a small indentation in the rocks that made room for a miniature cove. Shadow is standing and Sonic is on the ground on his hands and knees, spitting out water and gasping for air.

_'He does know he was in the water for maybe three seconds, right?'_ Shadow wonders, watching the blue hedgehog. Shadow leans against the stone wall of the cove and waits for Sonic's reaction.

Sonic catches his breath and lays on the sand, which is sticking to his fur. As if he needs more discomfort. He barely stops hyperventilating before he stands up and turns on Shadow.

"Who the _hell_ do you think you are?! What was the point in shoving me off a cliff?" Sonic now stands a foot away from his current number one enemy. "Do you _want_ me to drown? I swear, it's taking so much for me not to punch you right in yo-"

Shadow puts his hand on the ballistic hedgehog's mouth. Sonic shoves Shadow's hand away and, now that he's stopped yelling, just looks at Shadow's smile.

"You don't even care!" Sonic exclaims, sounding the slightest bit hurt. Shadow reaches out and Sonic looks at him with skeptical confusion.

Sonic shakes his head and his voice goes slightly higher. "What!? What do you want?"

Shadow laughs. "Shut up," he says, smiling as he grabs Sonic's hand. He pulls Sonic closer and just kisses the blue hedgehog as naturally as he possibly could. Just once. Simple. He lets Sonic's hand go. The blue hedgehog seems frozen, so overwhelmed with a million emotions that he just doesn't know what to do, while Shadow leans against the rocks with a satisfied smile.

It's a pretty scene, really. The lake behind Sonic... The sunlight glittering too brightly on the surface, leaving temporary, vague purple marks in Shadow's vision.

Shadow watches Sonic's incredibly slow reaction. He takes a deep, slow breath, either to ensure he's still breathing or to try to let go of some of his anger. He shrugs ever so slightly and joins Shadow by putting his back against the wall.

A few seconds pass. Finally, Shadow's been given too much silent time to think about the irreversible acts he just did. He looks at Sonic to evaluate how much trouble he'd just gotten himself into.

Sonic simply looks back. Shadow's red eyes couldn't hide his satisfaction. Sonic wasn't furious about that right now, though. He was back on solid ground, breathing oxygen with no problems. "Was that your plan?" he asks quietly.

Shadow smiles. "Most was improvised."

Sonic takes another deep breath, looking at the tumultuous, murderous ocean in front of him. It seems like he's savoring air. "And the kiss?"

Shadow waited a second to consider his answer. "Somewhat planned. I wasn't positive about pushing that far." He sees Sonic bite his lip slightly. "But I guess I did."

Sonic brushes a bit of sand off of his arms. "Well, it's the only thing keeping me from hating you right now."

"You realize you were entirely underwater.. And you're okay?" Shadow asks, suppressing a smile at Sonic's words.

Sonic looks at him with disbelieving eyes. "Because you brought me back up immediately!"

"Who says I won't be there next time?" Shadow asks. He means what he says, but wishes he could seem less forward. The kiss was much too questionable as it is.

Sonic's eyes light up. He finally smiles a little and Shadow feels back in his comfort zone. No damage from the risks he took.

"There's not much to be afraid of."

"Right, no sharks, no lack of oxygen, no squids, no whales," Sonic shudders. "Nothing to fear at all."

"This is a _lake_." Shadow states. "If you find a whale here, there's a problem."

Sonic laughs and Shadow smiles.


End file.
